


what the water gave me

by haalander (orphan_account)



Series: and the ships are left to rust [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Death, Descriptions of gore, Full Shift Werewolves, M/M, POV Derek, Selkies, selkie!Stiles, thoughts of non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-29
Updated: 2014-05-29
Packaged: 2018-01-26 23:30:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1706537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/haalander
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With interest, Derek watched as it stretched its- <em>his</em>, pale human limbs. Moonlight danced and dazzled along his sea slick skin in a tantalizing manner. His dark hair was wet and plastered to his finely boned face. The selkie was truly beautiful and the legends rang true.</p>
            </blockquote>





	what the water gave me

**Author's Note:**

> I recently took a short vacation not far from where I live to a small beach town called Ocean Shores, it's probably one of my favorite places in existence. Unfortunately, I didn't get to stay as long as I would have liked but I left with a ton of new fic ideas, so I guess it's a win-lose situation.

Hunting was never something Derek had found himself to be a particular fan of, be it in wolf skin or human skin. It was tedious; tracking down a credulous animal and luring it into a false sense of security before stealing away its pathetic life. The splash of hot blood down his throat and the rip of paper-like skin under his teeth would be sating, but it was more often than not that his meal would be bland and unsatisfying. Always settling within his stomach like a heavy stone.

Derek preferred the taste of human food, and he longed for the flavor of cooked meat and fresh bread, the prospect of such things was tempting but inaccessible. Years of living in the wilds under the guise of a wolf had left him without human sartorial or currency. Any attempts to enter the nearest town would result in upheaval.

The town was small but dynamic, hugging against the shores of the open Pacific and nestling comfortably in beds of sea grass. It was one of the many towns settled on the small peninsula where Derek had made his home. Long ago, he’d considered purchasing a home within the town and living out his days as a human, though he had foregone that notion to enjoy the simplicities of life as a beast. Where sleeping and eating would be his only concerns.

It was an ideal way to live.

Loose sand shifted under his paws as he trotted along the shores. The tide was ebbing, distant waves curling and crashing stridently against each other in an endless battle, gulls squawked lazily overhead.

Combing the beach for scraps was not Derek’s favorite method of quelling his hunger, but the air was devoid of any scent other than salt and feathers. Sans the birds, there were no other animals to speak of. Derek scoured the seaboards in hopes of finding something left by the gulls, a half-eaten crab or an unsuccessfully opened clam. His search yielded little rewards.

The wolf eventually slowed to a stop and sat down on his haunches, tilting his nose toward the wind in hopes of catching some sort of scent. He curled his lip when he caught the sour trace of rotted meat, but his empty stomach pushed him to pursue the acerbic aroma. It was not a far walk before he caught sight of the carcass.

It was a seal, its body bloated in death and swarmed by clouds of flies and scrabbling seabirds. The scent grew stronger and fouler as he neared the corpse. There were no signs showing how the animal had died, its thick flesh had only just began to decay, indicating a recent death. Derek spotted white furs around its blunt snout; he could assume it had died from old age.

He snapped at the birds, warding them away, and began tucking into the body. He ate through the thick layer of tasteless blubber and breached into the seals core, swallowing down cold organs and lapping at syrupy blood.

Once he had eaten as much clean meat as he could get, Derek licked the blood from his dark fur. He then ripped several mouthfuls of blubber from the body and buried them deep under the sand, spraying the freshly turned deposit to mark it with his scent. He’d been taught as a pup that storing food is always necessary, no matter your current circumstances. Better safe than sorry.

He continued his search, sniffing at empty shells and the picked bones of fish. When the scent of the dead seal became stale and faint, a new scent filled his nostrils. It was fresh and wet, warm and alive. The steady thumping of a beating heart filled his ears. One word passed through his mind as his adrenaline spiked for a hunt. _Prey_.

Derek picked up his pace but moved with his belly close to the ground, ears pointed forward and eyes glittering with intent. In the distance, he could see it.

Another seal, a young male. This one was smaller, younger, and very much alive. Pieces were clicking together. This must be the pup of the carcass, lingering at the deathbed of its parent. Too young and stupid to leave and start living as an individual. It would not have that chance though; Derek would kill it with a swift bite to the neck, ending its short and unfulfilled life.

The seal pup was fat and round; it obviously had lived well under the care of its parent. It appeared to be sleeping and its spotted gray fur was damp and dusted with sand. Derek almost wished he was in his human skin, so he could laugh at the folly of this animal. Seals were not quick on land; they could not run from a wolf and this seal had chosen to sleep on the empty shore, leaving itself vulnerable to any and every sort of danger.

Derek took a slow, unhurried step forward. Muscles bunching nervously under his skin, ready to propel toward his prize. He took another step, poised to launch himself forward when the seal’s eyes suddenly snapped open. Molten brown orbs locked and focused with his for the briefest of moments, flickering with absolute recognition before the seal jerked into motion. The tubby figure quickly wormed into the twisting waves, which seemed wrap around its body and pointedly tell the wolf _he belongs to us, you can’t have him._

Not one to be outdone, Derek bolted, kicking up sand and crushed bits of shells as he tore across the beach. He snarled loudly and skidded to a stop when the waves licked at his ankles, the seal already swallowed into the gray churning waters. The wolf barked and growled, pacing the tide angrily. He went still when the seal’s water-slicked head poked out from the frothy drench; sea foam clung to its spray of whiskers and its brown eyes watched Derek in an almost mocking fashion.

Derek howled in anger and charged forward until he was chest deep in water. He would not go further; the waves and current were too strong for him to swim in. Pulling his lips back and revealed his fangs, the wolf lowered his head and growled deeply at the offending animal. The seal simply stared at him with its dumpy brown eyes before blinking and withdrawing back into the salty water. Leaving Derek furious, hungry, and baffled that he had been outsmarted by a stupid seal pup.

\----

Derek lounged under a young Sitka spruce; the small tree provided a comfortable niche of shade within the early summer heat. As usual, the waves sang against the sand in the distance and the seabirds sang louder. His stomach was pleasantly full, leaving the wolf to feel heavy and sleepy. Part of him felt guilty for devouring someone’s pet cat, but survival of the fittest reigned.

From his lazy sprawl on the sand, Derek observed the idle activity of the beach before him. Gulls would squabble over a sand dollar, a crab would shuffle across the sand in hopes of escape, and a fishing boat could be seen in the distance.  The wolf closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the untouched world around him, eventually falling into a light slumber.

He awoke several hours later; the sky was dark and swollen with stars, the moon fat and bright from its high perch. All was silent save for the crushing of the waves.

The wolf stretched and stood, shaking sand from his shaggy fur and plodding out onto the still beach. Derek considered hunting, as his stomach nagged weakly at him, but made no move. His attention was elsewhere. Movement on the nearby jetty pricked at his sense, his inner predator clawed at him to _attack_ _rip kill_ , but his human sensibilities kept him grounded. He watched with curious eyes as the something loped over the wave beaten rocks and onto the sand.

Something inside of Derek stirred when a familiar scent wafted to him on the gentle breeze. His fur bristled and sent static-like pricks along his skin as he recognized the figure. It was a seal, _the_ seal. The same one that had gotten away from nearly two years ago. While it looked no different than any other seal; fat with gray-brown fur speckled in black, the scent was unique and easily peaceable.  He didn’t know why it was so easy to recognize, but it didn’t matter.

The seal had grown, still a pup, but was now sleeker and larger. It flopped around near the rocks, simply snuffling at the sandy ground and taking in its surroundings. Oddly, the seal started to wiggle away from the jetty and farther up the shore. Derek found it strange, that such a defenseless animal would move so far from safety. If he wanted to, the wolf could easily charge over to the seal and kill it with a fast twist of his jaws, but the curious part of him wanted to see what the seal’s plan was and why it was heading away from the protective waters.

Once the seal was at least fifteen feet from the swirling shore, it nestled into the sand and seemed to curl inward on itself. Then, something strange happened. The seal’s pelt seemed to undulate and droop, as if it was pulling away from the skin and becoming its own being, the seal itself remained curled as the pelt moved of its own accord. When the pelt had seemingly separated itself from the seal and hung over its crouched form like a blanket, a pale, slim, and _very_ human arm slid out from under the spotted fur and pushed at the ground. In a swift movement the arm straightened and levered the pelt covered form upward; the pelt slipped off and onto the ground in a heap, revealing a skinny human boy.

So that was why the scent was so discernable. It wasn’t just a seal, it was a _selkie._ Creatures that live their days in the sea as seals; but shed their skin to become humans on land. Derek remembered being told stories of selkies when he was a pup, they had been described to him as handsome and seductive beings. Stories of men who would steal the selkies' pelt and force them into marriage, for once a selkie lost its pelt it could not ever return to the sea. What a pitiful fate.

With interest, Derek watched as it stretched its- _his_ , pale human limbs. Moonlight danced and dazzled along his sea slick skin in a tantalizing manner. His dark hair was wet and plastered to his finely boned face. The selkie was truly beautiful and the legends rang true.

The selkie moved his willowy body in rather clumsy motions and he gathered up his pelt and stood on wobbly legs, as if he hadn’t used them in years. Derek’s eyes roved over the selkies body, heat boiling in his groin. It had been a rather long time since Derek had indulged himself, and having such an inviting creature within his midst brought on an untapped feeling of lust.

It would be easy; to run out snatch away the selkies' pelt. To make the selkie his and take him under the light of the Mother Moon. But he wouldn’t. Derek was not like the men in the legends, he was not a thief and he would not steal what did not belong to him. He wanted to inch closer, to grovel on his belly and whine at the selkie, to parade around and show off his strength. To win the selkie over with fresh kills and long sessions of focused grooming.

The selkie seemed not to notice Derek, clutching his pelt close to his chest and making slow, unsteady steps away from the waters and toward the swaying sea grass. Derek wondered where he was going and why, whether he’d find a way to safely enter the town or whether he would simply explore the offered wilderness before him.

Derek watched as the selkie disappeared from sight, engulfed by the gentle caress of oceanside grass. The wolf was left humming with want and determination. For the first time since he’d made this solemn cape his home, the unforgiving sea had presented something inestimable to him. And he was thankful.

**Author's Note:**

> This will be part of series, _but_ since I'm working on other fics and school stuff I'm not sure when the next part will be up. [This](http://www.denverzoo.org/sites/default/files/denver_zoo_harbor_seal_480x490.jpg)  
>  is what Stiles' seal form looks like if you're curious.  
> [tumblr](http://softposey.tumblr.com)  
> 


End file.
